Group rebuts Miaoli’s traffic obstruction claim

By Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporter

Fri, Jul 12, 2013 - Page 3

The Taiwan Rural Front (TRF) yesterday dismissed a claim made by the Miaoli County Government that unless a house belonging to the Chang (張) family in Dapu Borough (大埔) is torn down, it could block traffic and cause fatal accidents in the area.

In a half-page advertisement published on the front pages of the nation’s four major Chinese-language newspapers — the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper), the Apple Daily, the China Times and the United Daily News, the Miaoli County Government said the house of the Changs, located at the tip of a V-shaped intersection, has to be torn down because it could cause large trucks and eighteen-wheelers going in and out of the Jhunan Science Park to crash.

“We regret the Miaoli County Government’s attempt to stigmatize the Changs through the newspaper ads,” the TRF said in a statement. “We would like to stress that the intersection is the entrance to a residential area of the development project, and not the main entrance into the science park.”

According to the county government’s design, the eastern half of the Jhunan Science Park development project site will be designated an industrial zone for high-tech firms, while the western side will be turned into a residential area.

While the development project is far from complete, most of the roads have been finished and a few plants are already operating.

Although the industrial zone is connected to major highways via 30m roads on the eastern, western and southern ends of the park, and two test drives by eighteen-wheelers during the week showed that the intersection does not pose a traffic hazard for large vehicles, the county government insists that the house of the Changs may block traffic for large vehicles.

Kuo Fa-chai (郭發財), president of the Taiwan Confederation of Warehousing and Transportation Unions who has worked as a truck driver for decades, also spoke against the county government’s claim.

“I don’t think any experienced truck driver would have any problem passing through the intersection or making U-turns there,” Kuo said. “Saying that it may block traffic isn’t really an excuse for demolishing a house.”